Display holder for cups and saucers



ep 1, 1.954 FQJ. PETZ'KE DISPLAY HOLDER FOR cuPs AND SAUCERS Filed May 19, 1951 IN V EN TOR.

Patented Sept. 21, 1954 UNITED) STATS PATENT OFFICE DISPLAY HOLDER FOR CUPS AND SAUCERS Franklin J. Petzke, Minneapolis, Minn.

Application May 19, 1951, Serial No. 227,127

5 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a device for holding a cup and saucer to support the same either on a flat, horizontal surface, or from an outstand ing hanger element mounted in a vertical surface.

It is an object of my present invention to provide an extremely ingenious highly efficient cup and saucer holder adapted to stably support a cup and saucer either as an easel on a flat, horizontal surface, or as a hanger support from a wall.

It is another object to provide a cu and saucer holder adapted to securely grip both the cup and saucer and to resiliently hold the same to prevent the cup and saucer from being knocked off of their support.

It is still another object to provide, as an article of manufacture, a cup and saucer holder made substantially entirely from a single length of only slightly resilient wire doubled back upon itself to form two upstanding side by side wire sections having their lower portions loosely secured together, said sections being bent outwardly below the point at which they are joined to form a pair of opposed cup receiving arms depending primarily for their elastic resiliency to receive cups of different sizes, upon the upstanding torsion spring or upstanding hinge provided by the lower portions two wire sections.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my cup and saucer holder;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof showing the cup engaging arms in normal retracted position by full lines, and in expanded position by dotted lines;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of my cup and saucer holder showing a cup and saucer securely held therein in operative position as an easel; and

Fig. 4 is a front elevational view of my holder unit.

As illustrated in the accompanying drawing I provide an extremely simple yet highly etficient cup and saucer holder having most of the elements thereof made from a single length of an elongated piece of wire. The wire is doubled back upon itself to form a hanger loop 1 from which the two sections of the wire thus formed extend downwardly in side by side parallel relationship to form the upstanding shank or backbone of the unit designated by the numeral 8.

A coiled spring 9 is received on said shank 8 and a saucer retaining hook I0 is inserted through spring 9 and extends upwardly adjacent shank 8 with a spring receiving hook I Ba formed at the bottom thereof and a saucer engaging hook element lflb formed at the top outwardly extending portion thereof.

A base structure H is formed by bending the two sections of wire laterally outwardly at the bottom of the shank 8 after said two wire sections have been secured together at the bottom of shank s as by being loosely twisted together as shown at Hz of Fig. 3. The two wire sections diverge downwardly to form a pair of rear base supporting wing elements [3 as best shown in Figs. 1 and 4. The two wires are then bent to extend directly forwardly and then inwardly and upwardly to form the base elements l4 and the front arm supporting elements IS.

The free end portions of the two wire sections are bent directly forwardly from the inner ends of the respective elements [5 and are concavely curved in opposed spaced relation to. receive the convex base portion of a cup as best shown in Fig. 3. These concavely curved portions of the wire sections are designated by the numeral 18 and hereinafter referred to as the cup embracing arms It. The spacing between the arms It may be easily varied to receive cups having various sized base portions due to the torsional resiliency of the lower loosely connected shank portions as indicated by the dotted lines of Fig. 2. By relying on the torsional resiliency of the two wire sections instead of on the resiliency of the wire when bent longitudinally a less expensive and more easily formed wire can be used. The outer end extremities of the arms it are looped back upon themselves to facilitate insertion of a cup base therebetween.

The saucer supporting base structure H defines a pair of downwardly divergent planes which are respectively formed from the elements I3, is and i5. When the holder unit is being used as an easel the corners formed between the respective elements [3 and [4 support the unit on the horizontal supporting surface as best shown in Fig. 3 and the saucer which engages the front corners of the base formed between the respective elements M and I5 tangentially engages said flat supporting surface as indicated at H of Fig. 3 to form a three-point support for the unit which tilts the unit rearwardly to counter-balance the cup held between the arms [6 as best shown in Fig. 3.

The hanger loop I is adapted to be received on any wall hook to support the cup and saucer on the wall to form a wall decoration. The saucer is of course held between the hook ele ment "lb and the two spaced front corners of the base structure formed between elements Id and as previously described. However, the portion of the saucer extending downwardly between and below the said two front corners does not form any means of supporting the unit when the same is hung on the wall. The rear corners, however, formed between the elements l3 and I4 engage the wall and form the bottom support for the unit whereby the saucer is held in the form shown in substantially vertical position.

The coil spring 9 which surrounds the shank 8 as well as the depending portion of the hook member [0 retains the hook in side by side relationship to the shank 8 and permits vertical sliding movement of the hook relative to the shank. The spring 9 is of such a length as topermit a substantial amount of compression thereof and thereby facilitate insertion of saucers of varying sizes between the saucer engaging hook element [0b and the two front corners of the base H forming the lower laterally spaced saucer receiving and retaining elements.

It will be seen that I have provided a cup and saucer holder adapted to hold a cup and saucer in displaying position either supported on at flat surface such as a table or mantle or supported on the wall from any suitable wall hook member. When supported from the wall the loop I and the two rear corners of the base structure form the sole means of supporting the unit, the hook received in the loop I of course carrying substantially all of the Weight and the two rear corners merely engaging the vertical wall surface. The said two back corners also form the spaced rear supporting elements when the unit is to be displayed on a flat horizontal surface such as a table or mantle and in the form shown the bottom edge extremity of the saucer forms the front support to produce a triangular base structure when used as an easel. It should be noted that my cup and saucer unit is formed substantially entirely from a single elongated piece of only slightly resilient easily bent wire with only the addition of a relatively short piece of wire forming a saucer hooking element in combination with the coil spring 9 for yieldably urging said hook element downwardly toward said base structure.

It should be noted that an extremely resilient cup holder has been provided which is adapted to securely grip a relatively large cup and thereafter, if said large cup is removed therefrom, to return to contracted position to tightly grip a relatively small cup. This resiliency is due primarily to the use of the 'lower portions of the shank elements as torsional springs. In other words, as the cup engaging arms l6 are expanded the loose connection between the lower ends of the two shank elements permits resilient torque to be applied thereto. In the form shown, the two shanks are connected by av loose twist formed therebetween but any other suitable means could be provided for loosely interconnecting the lower end portions of said two shank elements.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, ar-

rangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

l. A holder for displaying plates and cups comprising an upstanding rear supporting structure constructed to provide lateral support at the lower portion thereof, a pair of laterally spaced lower plate-receiving and retaining elements connected to the lower portion of said rear supporting structure and disposed in forwardly spaced relation therefrom, a pair of cup-engaging and gripping elements respectively connected with said plate-receiving and retaining elements and being normally urged into closely spaced apart opposed relation to form a cupreceiving and gripping socket disposed forwardly of the lower plate-receiving and retaining elespaced relation above the lower laterally spaced plate-engaging elements and movable into position for holding a plate engaged thereby in seated relation with said lower plate-engaging elements.

2. A holder for displaying plates and cups comprising a rear supporting structure including a pair of transversely spaced supporting elements at the bottom thereof to engage at laterally spaced points a surface of support, a pair of transversely spaced lower plate-engaging elements connected with said rear supporting structure and. disposed in forwardly spaced relation from said spaced supporting elements, a pair of closely spaced cup-engaging and gripping members se arate from each other and respectively connected with said plate-engaging elements, re silient means yieldably resisting spreading of said cup-engaging and gripping members to facilitate insertion of a portion of a. cup therebetween, and movable means carried by said rear supporting structure for engaging a plate and urging the same downwardly into seated engagement with said plate-engaging elements.

3. A holder for displaying plates, cups and the like comprising a rear supporting structure hav ing resilient members extending laterally therefrom and adapted toengage at laterally spaced points a surface of a support, a pair of resilient lower plate-engaging elements extending fore wardly from said members in transversely spaced relation to each other and then towards each other and at their adjacent ends being free for movement away from each other and then back to their original position, cup-engaging members carried by and extending forwardly from said adjacent ends of said plate-engaging elements and movable therewith towards and away from each other into and out of position for gripping a cup between them, said plate-engaging elements resiliently resisting spreading of the forward portions thereof and resiliently main taining the cup-engaging members in position for gripping a cup, and means carried by said rear supporting structure for engaging a plate and urging the plate downwardly into seated engagement with the plate-engaging elements.

4. A holder for ceramic pieces such as china pieces and the like to facilitate display thereof loop element with both sections thereof extending downwardly in side by side parallel relationship to form a rear shank member, bent laterally outwardly to form a pair of laterally spaced rear support members and forwardly therefrom to form a pair of laterally spaced saucer receiving and retaining elements and upwardly and inwardly therefrom to form a pair of arm supporting elements, a pair of cup receiving arms formed by bending the two opposed free ends of said wire sections to form a cup receiving socket disposed in forwardly spaced relation to the saucer receiving and retaining elements, means positively holding the lower end portions of the shank forming sections in close association, a saucer retaining hook element disposed in upwardly spaced relation to said lower saucer receiving and retaining elements and disposed forwardly of said shank and having a portion thereof mounted in slidable relation to said shank, and yieldable means interconnecting said shank and said hook element for normally urging said hook element downwardly toward said saucer receiving and retaining elements.

5. The structure set forth in claim 4, and said hook element having a depending portion with a spring receiving hook at the lower end thereof and said yieldable element comprising a spring surrounding said shank and saiddepending por-- tion of said hook element to retain said depending portion of said hook element in side by side parallel relationship with said shank While permitting sliding relation therebetween.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date D. 137,205 Petzke Feb. 8, 1944 814,573 'Iimberlake Mar. 6, 1906 815,893 Adams et a1 Mar. 20, 1906 1,467,082 Baldwin Sept. 4, 1923 1,835,213 Gearing Dec. 8, 1931 1,836,405 Siemann Dec. 15, 1931 2,078,866 Metz Apr. 27, 1937 2,185,299 I-Ieraty Apr. 27, 1937 2,465,621 Wheeler Mar. 29, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 17,859 Great Britain of 1896 

